Leechdoms, Wortcunning, and Starcraft of Early England: Volume 3 Paperback – November 4, 2018

This three-volume work is a must for the bookshelf of anyone interested in Old English magic, medicine, folklore, and heathenry. Published in 1864–6, it was put together and edited by Thomas Oswald Cockayne (1807–73), a Cambridge graduate, much-published early member of the London Philological Society, and teacher of the philologists Walter Skeat and Henry Sweet. It is a collection of writings and lore from Anglo-Saxon England on plants, medicine and the heavens, mostly in Old English with accompanying modern English translations.The preface of Volume 3 discusses questions including the identity of the Anglo-Saxon translator of Bede's De Temporibus and the similarities between Classical and medieval dream-interpretation and divination, and the Victorian penchant for spiritualism and astrology. The texts in this volume include remedies, charms and prayers for the sick (including the “Lacnunga”), in Latin and Old English, lists of plant names, works on solar and lunar calendars and horoscopes, and explanations of the prophetic meaning of dreams. The volume ends with some historical fragments in Old English relating to monastic foundations.In this new reproduction of the original work, the announcements and advertisements of the original publisher, having nothing essential to do with the work, have been removed. This does not affect the original page-numbering. Read more